Sunday, March 7th, 2010. Northern Lights.
After reading Watkins’ Last Expedition, I ordered a rare and well kept first edition of Northern Lights to a small bookshop in the United Kingdom. Both books were written by Frederick Spencer Chapman, by himself a remarkable man. The latter is the Official Account of the British Arctic Air Route Expedition, published in 1933 by Chatto & Windus of London. The book has a foreward by Admiral Sir William Goodenough, and introduction by H. G. Watkins and additional chapters written by J. M. Scott, Capt. P. M. H. Lemon and Augustine Courtauld, with 64 pages of photopraphic plates and fold-out maps.Both books offer first hand information on the use of kayaks: The author and his friends were of the first non native kayak hunters: F. Spencer Chapman had as Watkins first accomplished, learnt to roll and both relied on seal hunting from their kayaks to supply the expedition. A year later, after the tragic death of Watkins on August 20th, 1932, whilst hunting, Spencer Chapman extended his repertoire to include norsaq and hand rolls. The three last men, Spencer Chapman, John Riddoch Rymill and Quintin Rileyin kept on hunting from their kayaks as they continued the work of the air route expedition in Greenland during 1932 and 1933.
Both books are exceptional. As a sample of their quality and style, David W. Zimmerly has a transcription of chapter XII of Northern Lights:
The kayak of the Angmagssalik Eskimo is not only a wonder of efficiency, but a veritable artistic triumph. It is the perfect canoe. Each detail has evolved till it has reached perfection. The kayak, like a race horse, is a thing of infinite beauty. When the Quest first reached Greenland, we saw the natives in their kayaks throwing their harpoons with consummate grace; and later we saw them, dressed in waterproof coats, rolling the kayak right over in the water. They fell over on one side, and with a dexterous movement of the paddle appeared again on the other. We appreciated then the skill of this, as a trick, but it was not till we had had personal experience that we realized the importance, indeed the necessity, of being able to perform this strange evolution.Watkins realized that it would be impossible for us to hunt seals in the summer unless we learned to use a kayak. Furthermore, should we succeed in this, we would be able to support ourselves on journeys along the coast, instead of having to carry a vast amount of food and impedimenta. Europeans had learned to go in a kayak before; in fact Nansen and Johansen had depended on them in that memorable journey to Franz Josef Land after the Fram had been frozen into the North Polar Ocean. But it was generally thought impossible that a European could learn to hunt seals from a kayak, or to roll it in the Eskimo fashion.
[Ignacio Wenley Palacios]
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Reader Comments (4)
That is an inspiring coincidence! I am about to write about F. Spencer Chapman. You might want to try and get an used copy of "The Jungle is Neutral"
All the best,
Wenley
Previously I had read Nansen, but for life of the Greenland Inuit you would enjoy very much "Watkins' Last Expedition". For instance, did you know that Greenlanders was the term for West Coast inhabitants due to the common Danish presence and intermarriage, while Inuit was used for people in the East Coast?